An introduction from the National Institute of Teaching
Who We Are
The National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) aims to enhance the quality of teaching and school leadership by carrying out research and applying insights to its initial teacher education (ITE) and professional development programmes. Our mission is to improve the quality of teacher and leader development at a system level. We do this by generating and interpreting research, applying the insights to the design and delivery of high-quality teacher development programmes, and sharing it with the sector.
The NIoT is run by the School-Led Development Trust, an organisation set up by four leading school trusts – Harris Federation, Star Academies, Oasis Community Learning and Outwood Grange Academies Trust – who are responsible for 188 primary, secondary and post-16 schools and colleges in England. Together, they educate over 100,000 children, in communities ranging from Bristol to Middlesbrough and from Blackpool to Battersea.
The four founding trusts are joined by a network of Associate Colleges, selected for their expertise in teacher development. As well as playing a key role in the delivery of our programmes, these Associate Colleges also contribute to their design, drawing on local expertise and knowledge. This ensures that programmes reflect their local contexts and the needs of the communities they serve. This partnership approach will enable us to extend our reach across the country, delivering targeted professional development where the need is greatest.
What We Do
At NIoT, we support thousands of teachers every year – from new trainees to leaders overseeing multiple schools. Our research pinpoints the most effective ways to develop the nation’s educators and is used to inform our programmes so that they have the highest impact possible.
We want to help talented teachers to play their part in improving education for all children. Above all, we want to ensure that all pupils – regardless of background and circumstances – can achieve to the best of their ability. By working in collaboration with schools across the country, we aim to ensure that our research findings benefit all schools, teachers and leaders.
Our Vision for the OS-Schools/TED Project
One of our key projects is the Teacher-Education Dataset (TED), which aims to enhance quality teaching in England by linking teacher and pupil attainment data. Our vision for the TED is to create a comprehensive dataset of anonymised teacher and pupil information to identify teaching practices that lead to the most pupil progress, considering prior attainment and relevant demographic details such as socioeconomic status or special educational needs.
The TED will be built with the highest standards of data privacy and research ethics in mind, and we are excited to be collaborating with the Bennett Institute of Applied Data Science at Oxford University to make the TED available to the education research community through the OpenSAFELY Schools platform. This will make sure that the teacher and pupil information contained within the TED remains private and secure, as researchers will not be able to access the data directly.
Conclusion
At the National Institute of Teaching, we believe that every child deserves a world-class education, and we are dedicated to supporting teachers and educational leaders in achieving this goal. Through our research, programmes, and collaborative projects like OS-Schools/TED, we are working to create a brighter future for education in the UK.
You can find out more about the National Institute of Teaching on our website www.niot.org.uk, and sign up for updates straight to your inbox here: https://niot.org.uk/form/eoi